Lightning pound Panthers in final regular-season meeting

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Feb 5, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Going into Thursday’s game against the cross-state rival Panthers, even Lightning coach Jon Cooper admitted to being uneasy about what could transpire in the teams’ final game before the Olympic break.

With 19 players between the teams slated to play in the Olympics — and the Lightning already dealt gut punches from injuries to Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli that will prevent them from playing for Team Canada — the hope was that the rough stuff that has accompanied the NHL’s best rivalry would take a back seat for the night.

And while we might have thought the Panthers would need points more than punches, after the Lightning had built a four-goal lead, Florida was up to no good once again.

But the Lightning had the last word with a 6-1 thumping at Benchmark International Arena in a game where they flexed their muscles and perhaps offered a fitting farewell kiss in their final regular-season meeting as the teams head in opposite directions in the standings going into the break.

Brandon Hagel, who had been knocked out of the game three times by Panthers hits to the head since last season’s first-round playoff meeting, undressed Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk. Hagel unloaded a flurry of fists on him, ripping his jersey off after Tkachuk ran his shoulder into Nikita Kucherov 100 feet away from the puck.

Things escalated quickly early in the third period with an all-out brawl that led to 14 penalties, including eight misconduct penalties and two game misconducts, and ejections for Tkachuk and Panthers coach Paul Maurice.

After Curtis Douglas was ejected for going after Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola, who had slashed Kucherov before Tkachuk went after him, arena public address announcer Paul Porter said, “All other players and coaches that are visible remain in the game.”

By the end, the teams had amassed 137 penalty minutes and 29 total penalties.

The Lightning (37-14-4, 78 points) go into the Olympic break 19-1-1 in their last 21 games. Thursday’s win was their ninth straight at home.

The Lightning weren’t their best on Thursday night, but Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 first-period saves to hold the Panthers off early. The Bolts weren’t as responsible with the puck as they’ve been on their remarkable run, but when they lost committed turnovers, Vasilevskiy bailed them out.

Despite being outshot 19-7 in the first period, the Lightning went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead, then built on that with a Jake Guentzel power-play goal 74 seconds into the second period after Tkachuk received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end of the first.

All six Lightning goals were scored by Olympians: Hagel (Canada), Zemgus Girgensons (Latvia), Guentzel (USA), Erik Cernak (Slovakia), Pontus Holmberg (Sweden) and Oliver Bjorkstrand (Denmark).